


It's Nice To Have A Friend

by A_Hundred_Jewels



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, F/M, M/M, five solangelo moments in a day, kind of a 5+1 but without the +1, my first time writing solangelo, school day, solangelo, this is for auctober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 09:30:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21034070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Hundred_Jewels/pseuds/A_Hundred_Jewels
Summary: This takes place throughout a schol day. There is no particular plot, just a bunch of pjo and hoo and a high school. That's pretty much it. Read the tags for more info. I wrote this for Day 13 of AUctober, with the prompt of "Highschool AU." It's a little late, as you can see.





	1. Five Solangelo Moments in a Day

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So, Iv'e loved the fics people write for AUctober for a while. And, while I don't have a tumblr and therefore can't fully participate in AUctober, I decided to write for it this year. So, this is a high school au for day 13, because I love high school au's and i wanted to write one. The title is from the Taylor Swift song of the same name. 
> 
> Please bear with me. I know this is cringy, but I've never written solangelo before and I wanted to give it a try. Enjoy!
> 
> I do not own these characters. They belong to Rick Riordan.

1)  
Will gets off the bus with his backpack slung over one shoulder. He’s listening to Queen through one blue earbud and searching the crowd of high-schoolers around him. Many people are calling out various “hello”s and “what’s up, Will”s. Politely, Will responds to every greeting, but still hurries towards the school doors, searching as he goes for someone, someone, someone.

Nico is inside the school already. He texts Will, knowing that he’ll be looking for him outside. Nico almost waited outside, too. Truly, he did. It was just the stupid COLD that made him decide to go in. 

From Nico; to Will: i’m inside  
From Will; to Nico: figured. C u in a few  
From Nico; to Will: aren’t you cold?  
From Will; to Nico: not really. I follow the basic laws of body heat  
From Nico; to Will: how do you expect me to respond to that  
From Will; to Nico: adorably  
From Nico; to Will: and how do you expect me to respond to THAT  
From Will; to Nico: same as before except now you’re blushing :)  
From Nico; to Will: I AM NOT  
From Will; to Nico: yes u are. I’m three feet away :)

Nico looks up to see his ridiculous boyfriend walking towards him and grinning up from his purple phone. Nico rolls his eyes (of course he’s blushing). 

From Nico; to Will: fuck u

2)  
Piper walks with Will to English class. She’s talking non-stop about some song or another. Will tries to listen, but he really doesn’t care. Also, his phone keeps buzzing… “Will!” Piper reaches up (Will’s half a head taller than her) and whacks his shoulder. “Stop checking your phonnnne and listen to me! I’m saying interesting things!”  
“I am!”  
“Uh huh,” Piper pulls the cell phone out of his hands and types in Will’s password.  
“Hey! You’re not supposed to know my password!”  
“You never change it and I’m observant. Of course know your password.” She clicks on his music app. (She does this every time she steals his phone. Every time. According to Piper, that’s the best way to learn stuff about a person). Will hugs his arms to his chest. “Pipes, just give me my phone.”  
“What, so you can text your boyfriend? As you so clearly were thirty seconds ago.”  
“Give it!”  
“In a sec. You know, your music taste is atrocious. How does Nico put up with you?”  
“It’s not my fault you guys only listen to depressing musicals nobody’s heard of!”  
“We Are the Tigers is only depressing the first five times you listen to it!”  
“What kind of cheerleader sleepover involves three deaths?!”  
“You listened to it!”  
“Of course I did. Who wouldn’t after constantly hearing Nico singing it?”

Cackling, Piper gives Will his phone back. “I bet you liked it,” she says. He snatches the phone from her outstretched hand, watching as Piper rolls her eyes and flounces into the classroom. Will checks the time. He still has a minute or so. Opening up his texts, Will texts Nico.

From Will; to Nico: did pipes make u get me to listen to tigers  
From Nico; to Will: she tried. Then i told her to fuck off and i got u to listen to it anyway  
From Will; to Nico: i knew i had faith in you  
From Nico; to Will: i can’t fathom why. U still ended up listening to it  
From Will; to Nico: somehow i don’t care  
From Nico; to Will: ur such a dork  
From Will; to Nico: you would be but you still haven’t listened to hamilton  
From Nico; to Will: that’s not a requirement  
From Will; to Nico: it so is. And are you seriously arguing that u are a dork?  
From Nico; to Will: you manipulated me into it!  
From Will; to Nico: reaaaaalllyyyy??????  
From Nico; to Will: yeeeessssss. now stop standing in the middle of the hall like i know you are and go to class  
From Will; to Nico: why cant i just stay here and text you  
From Nico; to Will: no one said you have to stop texting just go into the classroom and stop being so damn obvious about breaking the rules

Sighing, Will does actually stuff his phone into his pocket and walk into class just as the bell rings. He’s kind of proud of himself. (Until Piper smirks at him from the desk beside his. That ruins it). His phone buzzes, and Will discreetly checks it under his desk. 

From Nico; to Will: a) forget what i said before and pay attention in class b) the fucking bell just rang so u’d better not still be in the hall c) ur a pretty idiot miss u bye

Grinning, Will texts him back. The teacher has yet to look up from her computer screen or say anything so he figures it doesn’t count as “breaking the rules.” Imagining Nico’s face and ignoring Piper, he presses ‘send’ and turns his phone to mute (like a good student).

From Will; to Nico: not as pretty as you

3)  
Nico’s at his locker, dropping off a stack of binders, when a low voice at his ear asks, “Do you really need all those binders?” Without turning around Nico flips his boyfriend the finger and replies, “Okay, we may be a thing, but that doesn’t mean your perpetual disorganization will ever spread to me. Yes I need all those binders.” Laughing, Will slings an arm around Nico’s shoulders.  
“My system works fine!”  
“In what world?”  
“What do you use all of them for, even?”  
“Organization!” Nico’s huffing in indignation, but Will snorts when he laughs and it’s weirdly heartwarming (every time), so he hugs Will around the waist, even though they’re walking. 

“Ugh you guys are so gross and cute and gay,” says someone behind them. Suddenly, long tan arms are thrown around Nico and Will. Piper squishes herself between the two boys.  
“Oooh, let me join!” Nico stumbles as his sister, Hazel flings herself into his side. “You know,” Nico struggles to extract himself after a few more sweaty seconds of being in the middle of it all, “we are literally never going to get there if we walk like this.” Slowly the group falls away. (Unsurprisingly, Piper latches on to Hazel about three seconds after no longer being in their weird pile. Hazel doesn’t appear to mind). 

By the time they’ve reached the cafeteria, Nico and Will are tangled in each other again once more and the group has been joined by Frank, Lou Ellen, Percy, and Annabeth. They buy lunch and migrate to their usual table, already seated at which are Jason, Reyna, Thalia, Calypso, and Leo. Soon afterwards, Grover and Rachel sit down with them, too. Loudly, obnoxiously, Leo calls out, “Y’all won’t believe what my Chem teacher said last period!” Everyone tells him to “shush, the entire room can hear you.” Naturally, Leo carries on his anecdote at exactly his previous volume, all the while shoveling frech-fries into his mouth.  
“So,” - chews - “we had a test the other day” - chews - “and today we got them back.” Nico is halfway through his pizza already, and he leans against Will while Leo continues.  
“And I raise my hand after I get mine back because I got a sixty-five and that’s ridiculous. Like, that’s not a bad score for me, but I actually studied for this one and I never study.” Annabeth nearly chokes on her apple, but the rest of the table simply groans at Leo. Nico edges closer to Will on the bench, and is greeted with an arm around his shoulders. 

Leo continues to shout about his chemistry class, but Nico is no longer listening. Perhaps he’d been texting Will the whole day, but they hadn’t seen each other since getting to school. (So what if it had only been a couple hours? High schoolers have dramatic emotions). 

In a feat of sudden affection that he would probably deny later, Nico tucked himself into Will’s side, leaning his head on Will’s shoulder. Nico looped his arm around his waist and Will kissed his black hair. 

“Aww. Look at you two!” Piper leaps up from her seat on the other side of the table and hurls herself around the table. She puts her arms around Will and Nico from behind them. “Jase, why can’t we be like them?” Piper looks imploringly across the table at her boyfriend.  
“Because he’s my brother and I don’t need to see that,” Thalia deadpans. 

Jason snorts and flicks his sister on the shoulder. “That’s not fair!” he says. “You kiss Reyna in front of me all the time!”  
Will whispers to Nico, “This is why we’re the GSA of the school.”  
“Because of us and the Thalia/Reyna show?”  
“Because of us, the Thalia/Reyna show, and also the bickering. It adds charm, and the charm is really what makes the GSA.”  
“Who here is even straight?”  
“Either I never knew, or I forgot long ago.”  
“Same. Guess that works.”

All is well (until the lunch bell rings).

4)  
Nico is a freshman. Even though he'd been fifteen several months before school started and, by law of age, should be a sophomore, he’s a freshman. (He transferred school districts a couple times and the rules are different everywhere). Will’s a junior. He and Nico both wish that they were in the same grade so that they could have more classes together. Even if they both sometimes do drama club and they have culinary together three times a week and health two times, it’s not the same as sitting next to each other in English, the way Will and Piper do. (Well, they have health now, so perhaps it’s not so bad). 

Their teacher is young and he doesn’t care where they sit, so long as they are, in fact, sitting in a chair. Will and Nico sit in the back. They’re usually good students. (Sometimes they text each other or pass notes, but everyone does at some point, really). 

Will has been taking notes for about twenty minutes when nico passes him a note. He unfolds the piece of green paper (green?) and reads it. “Aplomb”  
He writes back several question marks.

-it’s a word  
-ok but why  
-because i was on dictionary.com ‘word of the day’ thingy for a really long time the other day  
-so the usual?  
-brainchild  
-what?  
-that’s another one  
-ok then  
\- (:  
-superfluous  
-did you go on dictionary.com too?  
-not yet. That’s from my english teacher  
-well then  
-teacher’s coming over

After Will passes the paper to Nico, Nico folds it up and shoves it deep into his pocket. They both try very hard to look studious and unassuming. The teacher doesn’t pay them any attention. After he’s safely back at the front of the classroom, Nico pulls the green paper back out.

-can i ride home with you and piper today? Hazels doing something with frank after school and it sucks taking the bus alone  
-sure. Pretty sure jason will be there too  
-k thanks :)  
Will has yet to get a driver’s license. He took his driving test a couple months ago, but the teacher failed him for confusing the brake and accelerator one too many times. Piper teases him about it. A lot. (But she also drives him home in the afternoons, so he doesn’t mind too much). (Actually, she drives herself home and lets Will ride shotgun, then he walks the one block or so to his own house). 

Nico puts the green paper back into his pocket. He stifles a yawn and leans his head onto Will’s shoulder. 

The bell rings.

5)  
“Remind me why Nico got to pick the music?” Will leans between the two front seats, where Piper and Jason are seated. Without letting her eyes leave the road, Piper ruffles his hair. “Because your music taste is atrocious and Nico’s isn’t. He always ends up picking one of my playlists.”  
“Okayyy, but what about Jason?”  
“Jason likes Led Zeppelin, Coldplay, and podcasts. If we’re in his car, then I deal with it, but my car must stay innocent from such horrors.”  
“You like podcasts?” Nico reaches over the seat in front of him to poke Jason’s shoulder.  
“Not as much as Piper is implying. I mostly listen to that one about the Gardner Museum Theft.”  
“Oh. Not as funny as I was hoping.”  
“Yeah, really not.”

For a couple blocks, they drive in silence, tired from an ordinary day. Piper sings along “Save Me, Sanfrancisco” (she and Nico have an unexplained fondness for Train). It’s not exactly warm, but sunlight shines through the car windows and Jason’s window is down. Will slumps back into his seat and his head falls onto Nico’s shoulder.  
“What are Frank and Hazel doing this afternoon?”  
“Getting ice-cream or something. I don’t know, exactly. Hazel said I could come, but it felt very third-wheely, so I just told her to have fun and get me some gummy bears.”  
“Nice of you.”  
“Well, I’ll get gummy bears out of it.”  
“Still.” There’s a beat of silence, during which Nico digs around in the pocket of his Aviators jacket and pulls out a Sour Pack of Skittles. He hands a yellow one to Will and eats a pink one himself. “Thanks,” he says, softly. “She’s a good sister, and I know she and Frank haven’t gone out together for a little while.”

“You guys have Skittles?” Piper’s turned the music up for “High Hopes,” but she shouts over it and reaches her hand back expectantly. “No purple ones,” she says. “I don’t know what they’re supposed to taste like, but I never like them.” Nico pours her a small handful, dutifully picking out the purple ones and giving them to Will. Piper tosses them all into her mouth at once. Will sees her wince slightly in the rearview mirror.  
“I forgot you like the sour ones, Neeks.”  
“They’re the best ones.”  
“Hey can I have some? I don’t care about the flavor.” Nico pours Jason a few too.  
“No more,” Nico says. “These are my last ones. I have to get more tomorrow.” Will laughs as Nico tips his head back and drops all that’s left of the Skittles into his mouth. A couple of seconds later, after he’s apparently swallowed them all, Nico turns to Will. “What color’s my tongue?” he asks. Will laughs harder as Nico sticks his tongue out.  
“What? It’s a valid question?”  
“Mostly purple, I think. Kind of green.”  
“What? I had so many orange ones though!”  
“I don’t know, I guess they kind of got overpowered by the other colors.”  
“That doesn’t seem fair. I was hoping for an orange tongue.”

“What doesn’t seem fair and why does Nico want an orange tongue? Also why doesn’t any of that seem weird to me,” Piper calls from the front seat.  
“Nico ate, like, twenty Skittles at once and most of them were orange.”  
“Yes, and I was hoping that would mean I’d get an orange tongue, but Will says it’s purple and greenish. Also, you’re just used to me. Most people still think I’m weird.”

“Why was Will looking at your tongue?”  
“He asked me to!”  
“Will, why are you so defensive?”  
“I’m not!” Piper sighs and shakes her head. 

Jason puts the last of his Skittles in his mouth. (Of course, he ate them one by one). He turns to Piper. “Okay, Pipes, what color is MY tongue?”  
“Like that!” Will points to Jason, who’s sticking his tongue out at his girlfriend. Piper rolls her eyes amusedly, nodding along to “Mermaid.”  
“Why is nobody here mature,” she mutters to herself. She doesn’t seem to mind though.  
“Jase, you’re tongue doesn’t really look different. Redder, maybe.” He nodded. “I had a lot of reds.” 

Piper shakes her head. “Y’all are weird,” she says. “This is your street, Neeks, right?” Nico looks up from Will’s shoulder. “Yeah, this is it. Thanks, Piper.”  
“No problem. I’m letting you out here, though, because it’s one-way and I don’t feel like taking that much of a detour.” Nico laughs at that.  
“Okay, then. Bye guys. See you later.” Nico kisses Will on the cheek and grabs his bag from the floor. They say bye to him and Will watches Nico walk down the street as Piper checks her phone before driving.

From Will; to Nico: byeeeeee <3

A second later, Nico turns around and grins at Will, sticking his tongue out like a child. Will laughs, for the billionth time that day, because of him. Nico’s tongue really is remarkably purple. 

Piper mutters something about “lovebirds,” then pulls away from the curb.


	2. taste the rainbow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hazel goes to an all-girls night at Piper's house

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ummmmmmmmm well i've been trying to write this addition chapter for ages and I finally finished it (yay). It's very odd and slightly unnecessary, but it was fun to write sooooo that's why i wrote it! hope you enjoy!
> 
> As said in the first chapter, I don't own these characters.

A warm glow comes from Piper’s house that evening as a small, old car parks in front of it. Two girls walk up the front steps with their arms intertwined. The doorbell rings and Annabeth runs to the door. She pulls Reyna in by the hand, with Thalia following closely behind. “Come in, come in! Pipes let me answer the door.”  
“Basement as usual?” Thalia asks, unlacing her Doc Martens.   
“Yeah. We haven’t started yet, though. We’re just watching Friends bloopers.”  
“And none of the guys know we do this?” Reyna frowns as she fiddles with her bracelets.   
“That we have a sleepover every couple months and talk about them? No, they’re oblivious as usual. You always ask this, Rey. Don’t worry.”  
“Yeah, Jason just thinks I’m at Reyna’s. If I say that, he never asks for any details.” Thalia grins at her girlfriend, and Annabeth laughs as she leads the way down to the basement. 

Piper’s sprawled on the floor in the most dramatic way possible. Her dark, choppy hair is splayed out on the rug and her legs are going every which way. Her eyes are trained on the laptop on the coffee table, where Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow are laughing themselves silly. When Annabeth, Thalia, and Reyna enter, she lazily reaches up to pause the video. Slowly, and groaning while she does so, Piper sits up and turns off her computer. “Good,” she says. “Everyone’s here.”

On the couch, there’s a very perplexed looking Hazel. Piper smiles fondly at her, then sits down and puts her arm around the younger girl. “Ladies, assemble.” Piper ties her hair in a bun on top of her head. Annabeth does the same.   
“As you all know,” Piper continues, looking at the array of girls around her, “this is young Hazel’s first time at one of our sleepovers. She isn’t able to stay the night -”  
“Yeah, my dad won’t let me, so Nico’s picking me up in a couple hours,” Hazel cuts in.   
“Nico can drive?” Thalia asks.  
“No! Nico’s weird, remember, so he likes walking around at night. He’s coming here, and then we’re walking home together.” 

Piper squeezes Hazel’s shoulders. “That’s cute,” she says. “Anyway, Hazel can’t stay the night, which means we have to make sure we get all the important stuff in early.”  
“What is this again?”  
“My dear Hazel. Have we ever seemed to be all knowing?”  
“Um, what?”  
“I promise this isn’t a cult,” Rachel calls out. Her voice sounds nasally from the way she’s sitting (upside-down, with her legs slung over the back of the couch).  
“Oh, right,” Piper laughs a little. “Sorry, Hazel, I just realized how creepy this all probably seems.”  
“Well, it definitely is a little odd.” 

Annabeth looks up from the paper crane she’s making. “Basically, this is just a night where all of us girls get together, usually at Piper’s house, but sometimes somewhere else, and we discuss things. It’s not like we spill huge secrets or anything, and no one is obliged to talk, but we sort of help each other out. Because we’re in high school, and that means that life is going to kind of suck in some ways. I guess it’s like group therapy, but with candy and gossip.” Everyone else nods.  
“Well put, Annie,” Piper says. “Yeah, that’s basically it, though there is quite a lot of me and Annie and Callie,” here she nods at Annabeth and Calypso, “complaining about our boyfriends.”

“Sometimes we just talk about random stuff, like our first kisses or dumb stuff barista’s have thought our names were,” Lou Ellen adds. “One time I got a coffee for ‘Lunatic,’ but they may have just been trying to tell me something.”  
“Yeah one time I got one for ‘Culprit,’” Calypso nods. 

“Anyway,” Annabeth sets her paper crane on the table, and starts to make another one. “You don’t ever have to come if you don’t want to. But your in high school now, so we want you to know that you’re invited. We should warn you that we talk a lot about Will and your brother, though, so keep that in mind.” Hazel bursts out laughing.   
“Okay, this sounds fun,” she says.  
“Good!” Rachel somersaults off the couch and puts her head in Annabeth’s lap. Annabeth doesn’t seem to mind; just tweaks her nose and goes back to origami. Piper hops up from the couch. “Okay then!” She spread her arms like she’s welcoming everyone to a festival. “Should we refrain from discussing Nico until after you have to go, Hazel?”  
“No, that’s okay. I think I’ll find it funny.”  
“You probably will. Don’t worry, we not mean.”  
“I didn’t think you would be.”

“Hey, before we get to any of that,” Calypso interjects, “Leo started to listen to a lot of Pitbull over the summer, and I can’t stand it. Like, at all.” Laughter ripples throughout the room, and Lou Ellen hugs Calypso in sympathy.   
“I happen to like Pitbull,” Lou Ellen says. “But if you don’t like him then that would really suck.”

Hazel watches and listens to the girls around her for a while, laughing as they bond over the most random things.   
Annabeth tells a story about her science teacher (who opened the wrong tab on his computer while it was connected to the projector, causing everyone in the class to see an amazon page open to a lot of black speedos), which made Hazel laugh so hard that she nearly choked on orange juice.  
Calypso laments further about Leo’s taste in music (“It’s not just Pitbull - he listens to Selena Gomez. It’s not like I mind Selena Gomez that much, really, but he doesn’t even listen to her good songs, just the weird ones.”)

A lot of laughter and some candy later, Piper turns the subject onto Nico and Will.  
“Apologies to Hazel,” she says, “but your brother and his boyfriend are gross and also adorable AF.” Piper drinks some of her cranberry seltzer. “I mean, they’re also kind of weird, but that’s to be expected.”

Hazel laughs, and Piper throws up her arms, giggling. “Am I right, or am I right?”

“I think you’re right,” Hazel replies. “At the very least, they text each other constantly. I kind of want to know what you guys know, though, because Nico is frighteningly good at being vague.”  
“Unlike Will,” Lou Ellen contends, “who doesn’t know what vague means.”

Everyone looks at her. “Well, he might might know now,” she says, “but in freshman year, he thought it was a type of wine.”  
Piper leaps up from the couch for the umpteenth time that night. “I REMEMBER THAT,” she exclaims. “Also, on the subject on Nico and Will, Jason and I drove them home today and Nico gave everyone Skittles.”

“Pipes, how is that on the subject of Nico and Will,” Annabeth reaches over Rachel’s head (which was still in her lap) to tug on Piper’s arm until she falls back onto the couch. 

“Because, he had the revolting sour ones, and he and Will are the only people in the world who like them. It’s kind of their thing by now.”

“If the sour ones are so gross, then why did you eat them?” Rachel looks at Piper.  
“I will always take free candy, even if it is more sour than anything has a right to be. Also, after they ate a ton of Skittles, Nico asked Will what color his tongue was.”

“Well that depends entirely on what color Skittles he ate,” Thalia says. “The green and purple ones basically change everything, but the yellow? Nothing.” Reyna nods gravely.   
“What?” Thalia looks up to see everyone looking at her. “I eat a lot of Skittles! They’re my happy food.” 

As the room dissolves once more into giggles and banter, Hazel’s phone chimes. 

From Nico; to Hazel: Dad made me come get you early sorry  
From Nico; to Hazel: i guess not that much earlier, but still  
From Hazel; to Nico: it’s ok. It’s late anyway  
From Nico; to Hazel: :) anyway, I’m outside

A few minutes later (as well as after many goodbyes and also cranberry seltzer from Piper), Hazel is walking down the front steps of Piper’s house. She sees Nico sitting on the curb, looking at his phone.

“Hi!”

He looks up, and smiles at her. “Well, hello,” he says, stuffing his phone into his pocket. “Did you have fun?”  
“Yeah! Piper was really nice to invite me.”  
Nico grins. “I got some more Skittles this afternoon. Want some?”

Hazel remembers what Piper told her earlier and bites her lip to keep from laughing. “The amount of those you eat can’t possibly be healthy.”  
“So yes, you want some?”  
“Of course I do.”

Nico pulls a lime-green Sour Pack out of his jacket, and Hazel reaches out a gloved hand. It’s a well rehearsed dance. Nico pours her a handful, then eats a few himself, straight from the bag. Hazel giggles. “Taste the rainbow,” she says in a sing-song voice. Nico rolls his eyes, but there’s no annoyance behind it. 

Together, they walk down the road, siblings and their Skittles, into the dark night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this!!! Pleeeeeeease leave a comment! Please! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so much for reading this! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please please please leave a comment and let me know what you thought!
> 
> Also, these songs are mentioned:  
"Save Me, San Francisco" by Train  
"Mermaid" by Train  
"High Hopes" by panic! at the disco
> 
> Plus "We Are the Tigers," which is not a song, but a musical by Preston Max Allen


End file.
